Sunday, November 13, 2016

My third visit to St Bede's as Patron of Reading was a very fruitful visit, with lots of excellent group poems created by Year Nine students.

Using themselves as a resource, they spent time remembering, and built poems about violence and love and family together.

I also met the whole of the new Year Sevens, and had a lovely time talking to them about my reading challenge, and the books that they love. It's always such a pleasure to meet enthusiastic readers, and these were some of the sweetest.

My next visit will be in March 2017 for World Book Day, when we will be celebrating everyone who achieved one of my reading targets, and giving out prizes. I can't wait!

Monday, June 20, 2016

Beautiful Broken Things is a sad, funny and real story about friendship, overcoming trauma and the damage it can do to self esteem. I read it as fast as I could get away with, since I was visiting family at the time, and I fell in love with Caddy, Rosie and Suzanne, and was intrigued by their often problematic dynamic of three.I finished BBT the week before Nightwanderers came out, and was really eager to talk to Sara about the process of writing the book, and the decisions she made along the way, and also about her young friendships, as she seemed to be interested in some of the same themes as me: the intensity and magnificence of female friendships, and friendship as a sort of romance, as well as notions of self-esteem and the good/bad influence we can be on each other.

The book has recently been selected as one of Zoella's Book Club reads, as well as receiving many other plaudits, and so if you haven't picked it up already, then make sure you do. Visit Sara's website for more news about her work or talk to her on Twitter (she has a new book coming out too). Seeing as Sara lives a little far away, in Brighton, we couldn't meet for coffee, so I was very happy when she agreed to this interview. : )

Caddy,
Rosie and Suzanne are really well drawn characters, and I recognised them from
my teen years. The dynamic between the three of them was so interesting, and
their varying levels of self-esteem seemed to be a key factor in the ways that
they interacted. Was this something you set out wanting to write about? How
people can fit together in terms of need?

I don’t think anyone gets through their teen years unscathed; we all
have our low moments, especially when it comes to self-esteem. But often this isn’t
something you realise until you’re an adult – you think it’s just you! So
though I didn’t set out to write directly about that, it seeped in as quite a
natural part of writing teenage girls. I think the friendships we have at that
time have a huge effect – they either lift you or sink you, and sometimes it’s
both. In this case, I was interested in the friends that lift you. : )This is a
subtle and complex element of relationships, and something I can now see played
a large part in my friendships as an adolescent. Could you tell me a bit about
your early friendships in this respect? Who do you most relate to out of the
three girls?

I went to a girls’ school, and I was part of a group of friends. We were
awful to each other for years – there were so many shifting allegiances
and loyalties that seemed so important at the time. My best friend, who sort of
flitted in and out of the group and had other friends, was the exception – we
never fought (still have never fought, 17 years on!) and our friendship was
very different. And of course, hers is the friendship that has really lasted.
She likes to say now that she’s a mix of Rosie and Suzanne, which is probably
true! Caddy is a lot like how I was when I was a teenager; shy, quiet and
self-conscious, always worrying I wasn’t interesting or cool enough for my
friends.

Suzanne is
a fascinating character, beautiful and broken, like the ornaments her
stepfather broke (and then glued back together – this detail made me cry), did
you have to do a lot of research to get her behaviour right?

Suzanne has been hanging around in my head for a number of years now (as
a fellow author, I’m sure you understand this and won’t think I’m a bit mad?!)
and her character grew very organically for me. Though I did do research, it wasn’t
to find out how she’d behave – it was more to understand her behaviour, if that
makes sense. I would think, how would a person in these specific circumstances
react to this specific incident? And that’s how I approach all of my characters
and research, really. So with Suzanne, it was how would a girl who’d been
internalising abuse for years react when she’s taken away from her family and
expected to make a fresh start in a new city?

In the
acknowledgements to BBT you thank Tom for saving Suzanne when you had almost
given up. Could you let us know a bit more about this? Did you write an
alternate version (I won’t publish this if it contains spoilers/will edit
accordingly.)

I did… anyone who’s read BBT through to the end can probably guess what
this alternative is. Trying to get the ending right took a lot of time and a
lot of drafts. My boyfriend, Tom, gets the credit for finding the solution. It
was right at the eleventh hour, but we got there in the end! I’m very happy BBT
has the ending that it has; it’s definitely the right ending for the girls and
the book.

You create
tension within the dynamic of three girls very believably, and I thought the
power play between Suzanne and Rosie was especially well done. There is an
understanding that flows between them that Caddy is outside of, which seems to
be because of their recognition of the part she plays to both of them. Did you
find yourself in this sort of dynamic as a teenager? What would your advice to
Caddy be about Suzanne, if you were her older sister?

I was never in a trio like the girls, so I’ve never had to deal with
quite that kind of dynamic, thankfully! There was a lot of power-play between
my friends when I was at secondary school, but it was more superficial. I would
give basically the same advice to Caddy as Tarin does, which is the whole idea
of how important it is to sometimes say no as much as it is to say yes, that
enabling someone’s behaviour isn’t helping them. I’d tell her to take care of her,
because Caddy never really quite understands how much pain Suzanne is in, or just
how vulnerable she is.

Low
self-esteem is a real obstacle, particularly for females, and even more so for
young females, what are your ideas about why this is? And how do you think we
can teach/show the younger generation to have stronger/better self-esteem?

I think we live in a society that doesn’t properly value women or girls,
so it’s inevitable they grow up internalising that message. We tell them that
things they love are petty and frivolous (boybands, YouTubers, for example), we
tell them they need to be pretty then chastise them for being obsessed with
make-up. I think it’s not enough to tell them once they’re teenagers that they
should value themselves and have higher self-esteem because it’s too late, we
should be working to change the patterns of society and the stereotypes that
young girls are faced with every day. And the answer to that, I firmly believe,
is feminism!

What do you think? Is the answer feminism or something else? Let me know in the comments!

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Only two days until Nightwanderers is officially out in the world! To celebrate its release I'm embarking on a blog tour. The first stop was an interview yesterday at Fiction Fascination and today I reveal seven secrets about me and the book at Serendipity Reviews. See the rest of the dates on the itinerary here...

This weekend Nightwanderers was in the Guardian! It called the book "emotionally powerful" in a round up of YA and children's books coming out this month.

Friday 3rd June at 2:15 I'm talking to Andy Potter at BBC Radio Derby, and on Saturday 4th June I'm signing books in Derby Waterstones as part of the Derby Book Festival. Please come and see me if you can!

On Wednesday 8th June, next week, I'm talking to Claire Cavanagh at BBC Radio Bristol at 2:15, and later having a book launch at Stanfords Book Shop in Bristol too, so do listen/come along if you're in this neck of the woods.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Arjun Randhawa! I will send the book a.s.a.p. and I really hope that you enjoy it. Please reply in the comments so we can arrange for me to post this.

In other news, there are a few book events coming up. The first is a book signing at Derby Waterstones on 4th June, between 11am and 1pm. This is part of the Derby Book festival, which has an amazing line up this year, including Matt Haig and Carol Ann Duffy. Check it out.

I will also be talking to Andy Potter on Radio Derby on Friday 3rd June from 2pm, so tune in if you want to hear me doing my plummiest accent or strongest Derby accent (I'm never sure which will come out.)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Maximum Pop officially revealed it this morning, so here it is on my blog! The cover for Nightwanderers. What do you think?

To celebrate, I'm giving away one signed advance copy. Follow me on Twitter, retweet the giveaway or leave a comment here, and next week I'll choose a winner. (One entry for follow, retweet and comment, i.e. three entries possible per person.)

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

It's almost nine weeks until Nightwanderers comes into the world (2.6.16) and I am so excited to share it with you. Yesterday, I arrived home to find two advanced copies of the book, and it was so dream-smashing (in a positive way) to hold this work of my imagination in my three dimensional hands. Can you even believe that I spent a year making every single detail up? Strange, isn't it?

Tomorrow (6.4.14) the lovely people at Maximum Pop! will reveal the cover at 11am, so check their website or twitter to see the design, and then please tell us what you think!

Because I can't reveal the cover yet (without being tortured by Maximum Pop journalists and their horribly judgemental cats), I have taken a photo of the inside of the book.

"If it's this pretty inside, what will the cover be like??" - You, in your mind, right now.

And in case you haven't read the blurb for Nightwanderers yet, here it is:

A stunning, sad and darkly funny story from the award-winning author of Infinite Sky.

It all started with a poo in a flowerbed.

Rosie and Titania are as close as sisters – closer, in fact. While Rosie is shy, red-faced and passive, Ti is big, tough and daring. They shouldn't be friends, but they are.

We weren’t identical twins, we weren’t even blood sisters, but what we were was better, because we had chosen it.

But when Rosie betrays Ti, the two girls run in different directions – making decisions that could do irreparable damage to both of their lives. As Rosie confronts harsh truths, she must find a way back to Ti, and to herself.

What do you think? Would you like to read this book?

No?!

Get out of here!

Yes?

Phew! Hold me.

Finally, to celebrate books and being alive, I will be giving away one signed advance copy, so check back in the next few days for more details. And don't forget to let me know what you think of the design once it is revealed.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Last Friday was my first day as Patron of Reading at St Bede's School, and I had a wonderful time with very engaged and amusing English classes from Year 7, 8 and 9. I received dozens of suggestions of books to include in the year long reading challenge I am launching, from Geek Girl to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. More details about the reading challenge are at the bottom of the page.

In the sessions, we talked together about why we love reading, and whether or not it is a cool thing to admit to (this seems to change quite dramatically if you attend secondary school or not...) and discussed books that we love.

Living proof that a love of reading is Extremely Cool.

I met lots of enthusiastic readers, including some enthusiastic readers of Infinite Sky (my favourite kind). And most importantly of all, I had a bona fide school dinner: breadcrumbed fish, jacket potato wedges and beans.

"Excellent." *****

So for any students who weren't lucky enough to be in my sessions, and who want to get involved with my reading challenge, here are the details:

CJ's Reading
Challenge for St Bede's

The challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to commit to
reading as many books as you can in a year. The challenge was launched on World
Book Day 2016, and ends on World Book Day 2017.

6 books = bronze

12 books = silver

24 books = gold

30 books = diamond

The prize for completing the reading challenge, whether at
bronze, silver, gold or diamond levels is to be featured on the Reader’s Wall
of Fame on my blog, to be entered into the Reading Challenge prize draw, and - most valuable of all - to have read 6, 16, 24 or 30 books in a
year!

I will be aiming for diamond, and will let you know how I
get on… What will you be aiming for?

Suggested titles from me, St Bede's students and teachers

Grandpa’s Great Escape by David Walliams

Good Dog Bad Dog by Dave Shelton

Infinite Sky by C J Flood

Any from Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

Paper Towns by John Green

The Last Wild by Piers Torday

Mazerunner by James Dashner

Divergent by Veronica Roth

The Worry Website by Jacqueline Wilson

Pigheart Boy by Malorie Blackman

Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Red Ink by Julia Mayhew

Leopold Blue by Rosie Rowell

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith

The Dark Inside by Rupert Wallace

Trouble by Non Pratt

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Girl Online by Zoe Sugg aka Zoella

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

13 Chairs by Dave Shelton

Hollow Earth by John and Carol Barrowman

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton

A Monster Calls by Siobhan Down and Patrick Ness

Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Any from the Geek Girl series by Holly Smale

Any from the Dork Diaries series by Rachel Renee Russell

Any from the Young Samurai series

Any from the Chocolate Box Girls by Cathy Cassidy

Pointe by Brandy Colbert
Eragon by Paolini

Have a Little Faith by C J Harper

Nightwanderers by C J Flood

Daylight by Ed Hogan

Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell

The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss
The Young Elites by Marie Lu

14+

Asking For It by Louise O'Neill
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Junk by Melvin Burgess

ACID by Emma Pass

The Fearless by Emma Pass

Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla

Do you have any more suggestions? Please let me know in comments below, if so.